Terrorists "1 for 2" in Airline Murder Plots, Tie Breaker set for 2011

Terrorists were in the final stages of planning to blow up planes heading from the United Kingdom to the United States, U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said Thursday. But British police arrested 21 suspects in the plot to blow up the passenger jets. CNN is reporting that the plotters were "getting close to the execution phase."

Bush administration officials are calling it a huge victory in their War on Terror. "[Al-Qaeda] took one from us at home in 2001, and we thought the series was close to over. But Americans never lost faith, and we showed them in this second round... we didn't even have home-court advantage" said Chertoff, who was speaking about arrests made outside of the US.

"Al-Qaeda is a strong, organized, and skilled group."said White House press secretary Tony Snow. "They're a younger team, and they know how to adapt while on the field. We are going to have to use our team work and legally questionable NSA wiretaps to defeat them."

The stage is set for the final match between the US and Al-Qaeda for 2011, as it takes about 5 years to plan airline hijackings. Few people are sure of the outcome of this next meeting, but strategists contend the US can take the Western conference terrorism championship if it stays the course on increasing domestic and international surveillance. The winner of this 3 game series will most likely face Israel, who is a heavy favorite in the Eastern Conference terrorism match-up against Hezbollah.